A disaster recovery team is typically drawn from a company’s existing employees. This can include the chief information officer (CIO) and IT department, stakeholders from various operational units, and service vendors.

Specific roles within a disaster recovery team might include the following:

• Recovery team leader. This might be a CIO, senior IT manager or executive management team member. Their job is to supervise the entire team, coordinate the efforts of each member and ensure an efficient BCDR plan is in place.
• Crisis management coordinator. A crisis management coordinator oversees data recovery management and initiates procedures when a problem or catastrophe arises.
• Business continuity expert. This team member focuses on the strategy required to continue or recover operations in the event of a disaster. A business continuity expert must also make sure that DR plans align with business needs.
• Impact assessment and recovery adviser. This role is usually covered by multiple employees with varying expertise in different components of technology. When a disaster occurs, they are then in charge of assessing how much damage has been done in their specific area and how to fix it. Examples of expertise areas include networks, servers, storage and databases.
• IT applications monitor. This person monitors all technology for a potential disaster and makes sure all individual components work together once recovered.

For a DR plan to be successful, team members’ individual responsibilities and authority must be clearly defined. They must know their duties, attend meetings and remain up to date regarding company policies.